Based on positive reviews here and elsewhere, and deciding I could live
with its ergonomic idiosyncracies, I just bought a new Kaito KA1103.
So far, I like it well enough, and the ergonomics are even a little
charming. But I have a question about using the radio itself to charge
the included NiMH batteries. It's not clear to me how long to set the
charging timer for, nor whether there is a risk of damage if the
batteries are charged for too long. The spartan "manual" gives a
formula of battery mAh / 100 for the # hours to charge, which in this
particular case of 4 x 1300 mAh batteries is 52 hours? But the maximum
charge time you can set is 23 hours. Does anyone have prior experience
charging the KA1103? After playing with the radio for an hour, the
battery indicator hit the 25% full mark, and I decided to charge them
for 10 hours, based on nothing in particular. Is this too long? Too
short? Anyone know?

wrote in message
ups.com...
Based on positive reviews here and elsewhere, and deciding I could live
with its ergonomic idiosyncracies, I just bought a new Kaito KA1103.
So far, I like it well enough, and the ergonomics are even a little
charming. But I have a question about using the radio itself to charge
the included NiMH batteries. It's not clear to me how long to set the
charging timer for, nor whether there is a risk of damage if the
batteries are charged for too long. The spartan "manual" gives a
formula of battery mAh / 100 for the # hours to charge, which in this
particular case of 4 x 1300 mAh batteries is 52 hours? But the maximum
charge time you can set is 23 hours. Does anyone have prior experience
charging the KA1103? After playing with the radio for an hour, the
battery indicator hit the 25% full mark, and I decided to charge them
for 10 hours, based on nothing in particular. Is this too long? Too
short? Anyone know?


Seems likely that those 4 batteries are in series.
When they are in series the voltages add but the
current rating is that of the weakest battery.
(If they are put in parallel they better all have the
same voltage and the current capacities add.)
Your 4 - 1300 mAh batteries probably look effectively
like one 6 V, 1300 mAh battery to the radio.
So 13 hours is probably right.

--
rb

On 14 Oct 2006 08:41:08 -0700, wrote:

Based on positive reviews here and elsewhere, and deciding I could live
with its ergonomic idiosyncracies, I just bought a new Kaito KA1103.
So far, I like it well enough, and the ergonomics are even a little
charming. But I have a question about using the radio itself to charge
the included NiMH batteries. It's not clear to me how long to set the
charging timer for, nor whether there is a risk of damage if the
batteries are charged for too long. The spartan "manual" gives a
formula of battery mAh / 100 for the # hours to charge, which in this
particular case of 4 x 1300 mAh batteries is 52 hours? But the maximum
charge time you can set is 23 hours. Does anyone have prior experience
charging the KA1103? After playing with the radio for an hour, the
battery indicator hit the 25% full mark, and I decided to charge them
for 10 hours, based on nothing in particular. Is this too long? Too
short? Anyone know?

Beware of the tuning wheel on the 1103 going south. Mine did and so
did many others- maybe Kaito fixed that problem.

I like ergonomics good enough. If you listen to radio while laying in
bed with the radio in your hands - ergonomics not to to bad. press
button left hand and then twist knob with right hand. I wish volume
the control only worked when you press volume button. Get rid of that
stupid delay.

Now I damn near cut off right thumb with my table saw. Did a rip cut
right up the thumb. A cross cut would have sheared the thing all the
way off. So point is ergonomics of radio not as important as they used
to be with two good thumbs. Heheh.

I used to do about 8 hours when they are totally dead when the radio
turns off by itself. I got a couple of sets so I don't really care if
they're charged right up to the tippy top. When I'm on the road I
charge em up with my cigarette lighter port thru a 68ohm 1watt resistor
for about the same time. Now I got one of those Rad Shack chargers to
charge. That was an expensive deal. I think I paid near 25bucks for
the charger and 4 metal hydride batteries.

I am going to make a guess here and say I get about 14hours out of a
charge. I usually play with it for an hour and then put Laura Ingram
on to fall asleep by for another hour. So maybe 2 hours a night for a
week or so. I think maybe you aren't starting with a full charge.
Anyway, 10 hours should do it for ya if batteries good.

Please describe what batteries look like and markings. The last DE1103
I bought had batteries said ETON on em.

There is a DE1103 group at Yahoo groups.

73
NEO


justin david wrote:
On 14 Oct 2006 08:41:08 -0700, wrote:

Based on positive reviews here and elsewhere, and deciding I could live
with its ergonomic idiosyncracies, I just bought a new Kaito KA1103.
So far, I like it well enough, and the ergonomics are even a little
charming. But I have a question about using the radio itself to charge
the included NiMH batteries. It's not clear to me how long to set the
charging timer for, nor whether there is a risk of damage if the
batteries are charged for too long. The spartan "manual" gives a
formula of battery mAh / 100 for the # hours to charge, which in this
particular case of 4 x 1300 mAh batteries is 52 hours? But the maximum
charge time you can set is 23 hours. Does anyone have prior experience
charging the KA1103? After playing with the radio for an hour, the
battery indicator hit the 25% full mark, and I decided to charge them
for 10 hours, based on nothing in particular. Is this too long? Too
short? Anyone know?

Beware of the tuning wheel on the 1103 going south. Mine did and so
did many others- maybe Kaito fixed that problem.

On 14 Oct 2006 08:41:08 -0700, wrote:

Based on positive reviews here and elsewhere, and deciding I could live
with its ergonomic idiosyncracies, I just bought a new Kaito KA1103.
So far, I like it well enough, and the ergonomics are even a little
charming. But I have a question about using the radio itself to charge
the included NiMH batteries. It's not clear to me how long to set the
charging timer for, nor whether there is a risk of damage if the
batteries are charged for too long. The spartan "manual" gives a
formula of battery mAh / 100 for the # hours to charge, which in this
particular case of 4 x 1300 mAh batteries is 52 hours? But the maximum
charge time you can set is 23 hours. Does anyone have prior experience
charging the KA1103? After playing with the radio for an hour, the
battery indicator hit the 25% full mark, and I decided to charge them
for 10 hours, based on nothing in particular. Is this too long? Too
short? Anyone know?
First of all it isn't 4 x 1300mah, the batteries are charged in
series. Figure the charginig process isn't 100% efficient, so you
need to charger to about 120% of capacity, however you rarely run the
batteries flat. Long term overchargiing converts water to oxygen and
hydrogen which are vented from the battery, resulting in battery
failure. You need to estimate how far down you are going to run the
battery, Without knowing how it evaluates battery charge, it is hard
to know what 25% really represents. NiCd and NiMh have pretty flat
discharge characteristics, so at the point at which you notice a
significant voltage drop, the battery is pretty much flat already.
I.E. by the time you get from 1.25V per cell to 1.1 volts per cell,
the battery is probably down to about 5% of capacity. Immediately
after recharge you can see voltages as high as 1.7 volts per cell, but
it doesn't last long.

In any case, figure out how far you run down the batteries, and
re-charge to about 120% of that. However if you use the latest high
capacity NiMh cells, 2600-3000mah, at 100ma, you may NEVER fully
charge the batteries. It is very hard to reach full charge if you
charge at less than C/25....

wrote in message
ups.com...
Based on positive reviews here and elsewhere, and deciding I could live
with its ergonomic idiosyncracies, I just bought a new Kaito KA1103.
So far, I like it well enough, and the ergonomics are even a little
charming. But I have a question about using the radio itself to charge
the included NiMH batteries. It's not clear to me how long to set the
charging timer for, nor whether there is a risk of damage if the
batteries are charged for too long. The spartan "manual" gives a
formula of battery mAh / 100 for the # hours to charge, which in this
particular case of 4 x 1300 mAh batteries is 52 hours? But the maximum
charge time you can set is 23 hours. Does anyone have prior experience
charging the KA1103? After playing with the radio for an hour, the
battery indicator hit the 25% full mark, and I decided to charge them
for 10 hours, based on nothing in particular. Is this too long? Too
short? Anyone know?


Hi
4 x 1300 mAh charge time is 9-11 hours
regards
Van

Be careful about charging batteries within the radio. It has a dumb charger
only regulated by time. After a few charge cycles your batteries will
probably not perform to their potential. That can be a problem because this
model radio goes through batteries in a hurry. After a while there will
probably be one battery that will not fully charge and maybe another that
will over charge. It's recommended to get a good battery charger.

I use this battery charger:

http://www.thomas-distributing.com/mhc401fs.htm

It's slow charge option is a good match for the Degen 1300mAh batteries that
came with my radio. The batteries won't fry, and each one gets monitored
separately so that all four get a full charge.

I charged my batteries with a dumb charger a few times before getting the
Powerex charger. On the first use with the Powerex charger, I found that
one battery took much longer to charge than the rest. After a few cycles
the charge time evened out amongst the four batteries and I now get longer
playtime.

wrote in message
ups.com...
Based on positive reviews here and elsewhere, and deciding I could live
with its ergonomic idiosyncracies, I just bought a new Kaito KA1103.
So far, I like it well enough, and the ergonomics are even a little
charming. But I have a question about using the radio itself to charge
the included NiMH batteries. It's not clear to me how long to set the
charging timer for, nor whether there is a risk of damage if the
batteries are charged for too long. The spartan "manual" gives a
formula of battery mAh / 100 for the # hours to charge, which in this
particular case of 4 x 1300 mAh batteries is 52 hours? But the maximum
charge time you can set is 23 hours. Does anyone have prior experience
charging the KA1103? After playing with the radio for an hour, the
battery indicator hit the 25% full mark, and I decided to charge them
for 10 hours, based on nothing in particular. Is this too long? Too
short? Anyone know?

wrote:
Based on positive reviews here and elsewhere, and deciding I could live
with its ergonomic idiosyncracies, I just bought a new Kaito KA1103.
So far, I like it well enough, and the ergonomics are even a little
charming. But I have a question about using the radio itself to charge
the included NiMH batteries. It's not clear to me how long to set the
charging timer for, nor whether there is a risk of damage if the
batteries are charged for too long. The spartan "manual" gives a
formula of battery mAh / 100 for the # hours to charge, which in this
particular case of 4 x 1300 mAh batteries is 52 hours? But the maximum
charge time you can set is 23 hours. Does anyone have prior experience
charging the KA1103? After playing with the radio for an hour, the
battery indicator hit the 25% full mark, and I decided to charge them
for 10 hours, based on nothing in particular. Is this too long? Too
short? Anyone know?

Rather than guessing at the charging time and having to deal with a
portable that is tethered to a charger I just use 2 sets of NIMH's and
a wallwart charger. I found it to be far easier than using the goofy
charging setup thet Degen uses in that radio.

It does have more than it's share of idiosyncracies, but the basic
radio performs pretty well for $50.00.

matt weber wrote:

First of all it isn't 4 x 1300mah, the batteries are charged in
series. Figure the charginig process isn't 100% efficient, so you
need to charger to about 120% of capacity, however you rarely run the
batteries flat. Long term overchargiing converts water to oxygen and
hydrogen which are vented from the battery, resulting in battery
failure.

I was under the impression that Potassium Hydroxide was the electrolyte
being used, not water...I may be wrong.

You need to estimate how far down you are going to run the
battery, Without knowing how it evaluates battery charge, it is hard
to know what 25% really represents. NiCd and NiMh have pretty flat
discharge characteristics, so at the point at which you notice a
significant voltage drop, the battery is pretty much flat

It is better to think the NiMh batteries have a rapid discharge rate and
a flat 'running' range. They hold their rated voltage longer than a lead
acid, but near the end of the capacity, suddenly drop. That is why they
are a bad idea for smoke detectors. You might not be around when they
give the warning beeps.

nimh discharge:

http://snipurl.com/z3f3

Dry cell types have a longer slope of discharge and it starts WAY
earlier in the charge life of the battery. They give you lots of warning
as they approach an inoperative state.




mike

m II wrote:
matt weber wrote:

First of all it isn't 4 x 1300mah, the batteries are charged in
series. Figure the charginig process isn't 100% efficient, so you
need to charger to about 120% of capacity, however you rarely run the
batteries flat. Long term overchargiing converts water to oxygen and
hydrogen which are vented from the battery, resulting in battery
failure.

I was under the impression that Potassium Hydroxide was the electrolyte
being used, not water...I may be wrong.

Water by itself is miserable at carrying charge. You need the addition
of ions and, in this, case potassium hydroxide is used the alkaline
electrolyte. In other words, you are right!

JB


You need to estimate how far down you are going to run the
battery, Without knowing how it evaluates battery charge, it is hard
to know what 25% really represents. NiCd and NiMh have pretty flat
discharge characteristics, so at the point at which you notice a
significant voltage drop, the battery is pretty much flat

It is better to think the NiMh batteries have a rapid discharge rate and
a flat 'running' range. They hold their rated voltage longer than a lead
acid, but near the end of the capacity, suddenly drop. That is why they
are a bad idea for smoke detectors. You might not be around when they
give the warning beeps.

nimh discharge:

http://snipurl.com/z3f3

Dry cell types have a longer slope of discharge and it starts WAY
earlier in the charge life of the battery. They give you lots of warning
as they approach an inoperative state.




mike